I have heard about a Hassid rabbi: Rabbi Bonum was his name. When he was dying he left this last message for his disciples. He said, "Everyone must have two pockets, so that he can reach into one or the other according to his needs. In his right pocket are to be the words: For my sake was the world created; and in his left: I am nothing but earth."
Beautiful it is. He is saying: Man is nothing but earth — keep this message in one pocket; and in the other: The whole world is created for me. I am the God of the whole world — keep this message in the other pocket. Both messages are true because one shows the reality, the other shows the potentiality. One shows the fact, the other shows the truth.
The fact is that we are made of earth; the truth is that we are made in His image. We are both — God enshrined in earth. We are of the earth, and yet, there is a great passion inside us to rise to the highest sky.
Look at the trees — what are they doing? They come from the earth, they belong to the earth, they are rooted in the earth, and they are trying to reach to the sun, trying to reach to the stars. Rooted in the earth, they move towards heaven. That is the Baul symbol: the tree rooted in the earth, reaching towards heaven; rooted in the body, reaching towards the soul.
Then these two are not contraries; they are both of one process, of one dynamic force.
OSHO
